cine chest . 19 --
Pannikins, knife, fork, and spoon (14 in each boat) . 5 5
Weighing-dials and measures . 2 2
Various small articles for repairs, &c., not mentioned
above 14 --
Packages for provisions, clothes, &c 110 116
---- ----
14)3753 1/4 3753 3/4

Weight, per man 268 lbs.
Exclusive of four sledges, weighing 26 lbs. each.

I have not thought it necessary, in the course of this volume, to enter
into any examination of the question respecting the approaches to the
North Pole which had already been effected previous to our late attempt.
I shall, therefore, only add that, after carefully weighing the various
authorities, from which every individual interested in this matter is at
liberty to form his own conclusions, my own impartial conviction, at the
time of our setting out on this enterprise, coincided (with a single
exception) with the opinion expressed by the Commissioners of Longitude
in their memorial to the king, that "the progress of discovery had not
arrived northward, according to any well-authenticated accounts, so far
as eighty-one degrees of north latitude." The exception to which I
allude is in favour of Mr. Scoresby, who states his having, in the year
1806, reached the latitude of 81 deg. 12' 42" by actual observation, and
81 deg. 30' by dead reckoning. I therefore consider the latter parallel
as, in all probability, the highest which had ever been attained prior
to the attempt recorded in the following pages.

* * * * *

The Hecla being ready to proceed down the river, she was taken in tow,
at ten A.M. on the 25th of March, 1827, by the Lightning steam-vessel;
and having received and returned the cheers of the Greenwich pensioners,
the children of the Naval Asylum, and of various ships in the river, she
made fast to the moorings at Northfleet at three P.M. The following day
was occupied in swinging the ship round on the various points of the
compass, in order to obtain the amount of the deviation of the magnetic
needle produced by the attraction of the ship's iron, and to fix Mr.
Barlow's plate for correcting it.[015] On the